In recent years the Internet and other similar information communication networks have advanced and a cellular phone or the like is used for a personal terminal to allow the user to readily access network information.
On such an information communication network a digital signal is used to transmit information. As such, if a user copies music, video data or the like transmitted on such an information communication network as described above, each individual user can copy such data almost free of significant degradation in the quality of sound, image and the like.
Thus, if music data, image data or other similar content data in copyright is transmitted on such an information communication network without any appropriate approach taken to protect the copyright, the copyright owner may have his/her right infringed significantly.
However, prioritizing copyright protection and preventing content data distribution on a rapidly expanding digital information communication work, is disadvantageous to copyright owners, who basically can collect a predetermined copyright fee for copying content data.
In contrast, if digital data recorded in a recording medium, e.g., music data recorded in a normally sold compact disc (CD), is copied to a magneto-optical disk (such as an MD), it may be copied, as desired, as long as the copied data is solely for personal use, although an individual user who example digitally records data is required to indirectly pay as a bond to the copyright owner a predetermined portion of the price of the exact digital recording equipment, MD or any other similar media used by the user.
In addition, if music data in a digital signal is copied from a CD to an MD the information is digital data copied without significant degradation and accordingly equipment is configured to prevent copying music data from a recordable MD to another MD and thus protect copyright.
As such, distributing music data, image data and other similar data to the public on a digital information communication network is itself a behavior subject to a restriction attributed to a public transmission right of a copyright owner and a sufficient approach is accordingly required for protection of copyright.
This requires preventing further, arbitrarily copying content data that has been transmitted to the public on an information communication network and received.